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"This stage was a piece of gold for us," Sagan said, comparing Friday's relatively flat to the three previous days in the Alps, which saw several of the event's top sprinters miss the time cut.

"It's fantastic. I mean also with the flat stage and a flat stage everyone recovered a little bit in the group. I think everyone was happy that it was a relaxed stage. I'm very happy to have won today. It was very nice for me, and thanks to all my teammates, who did a very good job."

Team Sky led the race into the final 10km and onto the city streets of Valence, with yellow jersey Geraint Thomas and Chris Froome safely at the front to avoid potential crashes or gaps.

Dimension Data briefly took over with their lead-out for sprinter Edvald Boasson Hagen with 6km to go, but Trek-Segafredo overtook them with stage 9 winner John Degenkolb through a tight left-hand turn at 5km to go that forced the peloton to ease up slightly.

Out of the corner safely, the field picked up Michael Schär (BMC Racing), the last rider of the day's four-person breakaway.

Team Sky stayed out front for the next two kilometres, while Trek-Segafredo had some rivalry from sprint teams Groupama-FDJ for Demare and Cofidis for Christophe Laporte.

Degenkolb's team looked in control with 2km to go with four riders ahead of him, followed by Kristoff without teammates, and Greg Van Avermaet (BMC Racing). But Philippe Gilbert (Quick-Step Floors) played his hand with a late attack under the flamme rouge, causing some disorganisation. Although he pulled away for a few brief moments, Groupama-FDJ pulled him in with 300 metres to the line.

Demare was the first to launch his sprint, but it may have been too soon, as Kristoff surged from the Frenchman's back wheel and the pair raced neck-to-neck for the line. The pair were caught out, however, as Sagan managed to come around them with a late surge for the line to steal the stage victory.

"I think I was a little bit late," Sagan said of his the timing of his sprint. "I was a little bit behind at 600 metres, but in the last climb, I tried to bring myself to the front. I stayed on Kristoff's wheel, and I'm very happy to beat them."

The field came through the finish line , and there were no changes to the general classification. Team Sky continue their stronghold on the race, with Tomas in yellow by 1:39 ahead of his teammate Froome, while Tom Dumoulin (Team Sunweb) sits in third at 1:50 back.

How it unfolded

Stage 13 saw the Tour de France exit the Alps and head toward the Massif Central for a 169.5km stage that started in Bourg d'Oisans and finished in Valence.

The peloton likely appreciated the rolling downhill for the first 30km, legs still feeling the burn from the previous three days of racing through the Alps that culminated at the top of the storied Alpe d'Huez on Thursday.

The mountainous jaunt shed many of the peloton's top sprinters: double stage winners Fernando Gaviria (Quick-Step Floors) and Dylan Groenewegen (LottoNL-Jumbo) along with Andre Greipel (Lotto Soudal), all finish outside the time limit on the road to Alpe d'Huez. Also, Mark Cavendish (Dimension Data) and Marcel Kittel (Katusha-Alpecin) were time-cut the day before at La Rosiere.

The race to Valence was expected to be one for the sprinters, and the fast men still in the race included Sagan, Demare, Degenkolb, Kristoff and Sonny Colbrelli (Bahrain-Merida). Not to be discounted was Gaviria's primary lead-out man Max Richeze.

Breakaway specialist Thomas de Gendt (Lotto Soudal) attempted two attacks before he finally cleared the field with Thomas Scully (EF Education First-Drapac) in tow just a few kilometres off the start line.

Schär and Dimitri Claeys (Cofidis, Solutions Credits) counter-attacked and successfully made it across to form an early breakaway of four riders that pushed their gap out to 3:20 before the first climb of the day.

De Gendt led the quartet over the top of the Côte de Brié, a 2.4km, category 3 climb with an average grade of 6.9 per cent. There was no contest for the mountain points as Frenchman Julian Alaphilippe (Quick-Step Floors) has a firm lead in the polka-dot jersey classification, and he was back in the field.

Their gap dropped slightly on the descent into Grenoble, to 2:30, as riders from Bora-Hansgrohe, UAE Team Emirates and Groupama-FDJ set a pace at the front of the main peloton.

The field cut their gap by another minute through the valley and toward the first intermediate sprint of the day in Saint Quentin sur Isere located 71km into the race.

De Gendt rolled through the sprint line taking the 20 points, followed by Schär, Claeys and Scully. Just under two minutes later, Kristoff sprinted for the 11 points offered for fifth place, after pipping Degenkolb at the line with Sagan just behind.

The breakaway pushed through a headwind as they raced toward the second climb of the day, Côte de Sainte Eulalie, a 1.5km ascent with an average grade at just under 5 per cent and located roughly 60km from Valence. They lost a chunk of their gap, down to under a minute at the base of the climb, but they kept a steady pace over the top, and again, there was no contest for the KOM points, with Scully rolling through first.

It wasn't a straightforward run-in to Valence, as the last 40 kilometres were rolling and there were several climbs included in the parcours that were not categorised like the other two earlier ascents.

The peloton stayed relatively subdued and kept the four leaders at a manageable minute. There was some jostling in the field, however, as teams with sprinters began to organise their lead-outs while those with GC contenders moved closer to the front to stay safe.

The increased speeds of the Groupama-FDJ-led field cut the breakaway's gap in half, down to 30 seconds with 25km to go. De Gendt and Claeys sat up, knowing their day was over, while Schär made a last-ditch attacked over a small rise in the road. Scully tried to follow but wasn't able to fully close the gap before being reeled in by the field.

Schär pushed on alone and built his lead out to 45 seconds with less than 29km to go. His efforts secured him the most combative rider of the day award, but his time out front was destined to come to an end as the peloton prepared for a bunch kick in Valence.

The racing continues on the weekend with stage 14 from Saint-Paul-Trois-Châteaux to Mende on Saturday and stage 15 from Millau to Carcassonne on Sunday.